It's the "BRITISH Open," not "The Open"

Forget about all those Brits who insist everyone call it “The Open.” Like England and its tournament is the only “Open” in the world, for Christ’s sake.

It’d be like me starting my own golf tournament and calling it “The Tournament.” Rather than “The Tim Tournament.”

See, this is to distinguish it from, for example, the “U.S. Open.” Or, The “Scottish Open.” Or, the “Australian Open.”

There is no good rationale for calling it simply “The Open” other than England’s arrogance and snobbery.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, one of the reasons I like the BRITISH Open is because a huge part of the tournament’s difficulty, no matter where it’s played, is that isn’t mad-made. The USGA makes the U.S. Open hard because of the way they set it up. All the BRITISH Open has to do is let nature take its course.

It rained on Wednesday, and Hoylake was playing completely different from the day before, when the ball was running 50-60 yards in the fairway and you had to land the ball in front of the green to have any chance of staying on. And the wind hasn’t even started to blow yet.

I concur with all the above gentle rebukes, and in the spirit of trans-Atlantic relations that will nonetheless see your Ryder Cup Team going home hungover and with their tails between their legs this September, I have no wish to escalate such rebukes to a more strident tone. Take your lesson, though, and we'll hear no more of it. And the less said about Winnie the Pooh speaking with an Arkansas accent, or the US Army apparently taking the bridge at Nijmegen, or the American Navy capturing the first Enigma machine... the better, what?

In the course of an interview on the odds of his winning the 1970 Open at St Andrews Arnold Palmer opined:
"There's Tour golf, there's Open Championship golf and then there the Open at St Andrews."
Nuff said?

ummm tim.......common just admit to us that you forgot about The MASTERS..oh and also that other vague championship called THE WORLD SERIES..which is played by the NATIONAL LEAGUE AND THE AMERICAN LEAGUE..
And another thing dont acuse those poor british people of being arrogant...common thats just laughable. We are the most arrogant people in the world...and we like it that way

I hate to agree with Tim, but I can't see anything wrong with referring to the Open Championship as the British Open.

An open chanpionship is a championship that is open to professinals and amateur. Calling a championship The Open Championship seems to be making the claim that there is only one such championship. That may have been true in 1860, but it is no longer the case today.

There are three issues here.
1)Is there a problem with the British referring to their open as The Open Championship? No--no more than there is when Americans refer to theirs as the Open.
2)Is there a problem with the British officially designating their open as The Open Championship, and not qualifying it as the British Open Championship? It might be nice of the British to change the name in recognition of the fact that there are other Open Championships--but as it has been noted, the Americans have the Masters and the World Series.
3)Is ther a problem if some people, particularly those who are not British, refer to the tournament as the British Open?

Americans talk about their baseball World Series--but I am not aware of Americans who make a fuss if people elsewhere in the world wish to refer to the event as the American World Series. It does seem presumptuous of the British to insist that people elsewhere in the world refer to their open championship as The Open Championship without any qualifications.

The Morris Men - As Jim Coulthard so nicely pointed out the "Open" championship is a TYPE of tournament, different than an INVITATIONAL or a CLOSED tournament. The Masters is NOT a TYPE of tournament, it is just the name of the specific, invitational tournament. Any golf tournament that you can play in regardless of membership or an invite is an Open Championship.

I usually love to agree with Tim (on such issues as Michelle Wie), but I can't agree this time.

It doesn't matter how many times people say, 'it's the British Open, not The Open Championship.' The fact remains that its official name is The Open Championship. Just check www.opengolf.com, and you'll realise that there is actually no golf tournament in the world called the British Open.

It just annoys me that some Americans think we're just being awkward - we're not, it's just that the tournament's official name is The Open Championship.

In calling it the British Open, it's you who is being awkward. I'll just refer to the U.S. Open as 'the Treacle Pudding Open' from now on and see how you like it.

Additionally, the fact that the PGA Tour officially recognises 'The Open Championship' as the 'British Open' just shows that they simply couldn't give a shit about British golf, but care more about turning the Tour into a business whose sole aim is to make as much money as possible. Who cares about the game's heritage, really? Obviously not the Americans. After all, there are other ways of making money.

According to Monty Python, the worst insult you can use in referring to the Belgians is Belgians. Like a lot of other people it never occurred to me thst the same thing might be true of the British.
Indeed, David is so insulted by the thought that some Americans might be referring to the British golf championship as the British Open he instucts us to check www.opengolf.com so we can see for ourselves what the official name is--and then talks about the fact that the PGA recognises the Open Championship as the British Open, apparently without checking www.pga.com where it is abundantly clear that the event is IN FACT referred to as the Open Championshio.

I have an idea. If this is truly the Open Championship of the world, and not just Britian, then it should be like the America's Cup. Every year it should be held in the country of the previous year's winner.

Kudos jeff...
the sad thing is that tim refers to the british as arrogant...when in fact making a statement like that shows a different kind of arrogance on his part...lol
This country (USA) is getting so dumb.

And Jim, it is true that the British do not often refer to themselves as British, which is how most Americans refer to them. They instead refer to themselves as "English", "Scottish" or "Welsh". Their history as individual countries is much longer than their history as a union.

KathyF, you're correct. In addition, there are several million Northern Irish people.

The Open Championship IS NOT the national golf championship of Britain - it is much more important than that. It is a tournament 'open to the entire world.' It would, in fact, be more accurate to call it the 'World Open' than the 'British Open.'

It is, as such, the most important, prestigious golf tournament in the world.

The first few responses to my blog were classic English, intelligent and understated, but nonetheless making a strong point. They understood I overstated the case a bit, on purpose, a literary device if you will. This is the English I like.

Then, the response sort of degenerated into coarse and, to use one respondent's word, stupid. This is the English I don't like.

My original point still stands, though. And to say, "Well, it has always been thus" doesn't really address the issue.

In journalism, one is taught that if a word or phrase is confusing, to even one person, change it.

It's called the Open because that's its name. It's like saying it should be called American Nike because that's American. The name is the Open championship. Just because you want to call it something different does change that its actual name is The Open Championship.

'Actually, The Open Championship is no more "open" than the United States Open Championship.'

Shanks, you're both wrong and right.

You're correct in that neither tournaments are really all that 'open,' in that you generally have to be very good to qualify.

However, you're wrong in the sense that just until recently, one could only qualify for the U.S. Open on:

- U.S. mainland
- Canada
- Mexico
- and such like

Recently, a new qualifying tournament was established, but I forget where now.

I may have my details slightly wrong, but my point is that U.S. Open qualifying is not nearly as far-reaching as Open Championship qualifying (which takes place on every continent except Antarctica, I believe).

It's a question of useage, really. When the event began in 1860 it was the first of its category, in fact there were very few golf tournaments in that era because stroke play (which we Brits misguidely call medal play....)was in its infancy. Until that point all competitions had been played in match play format.
It was the first such tournament open to all comers, so they named it The Open. It has been so called ever since.
Rather like The Amateur, which began at Hoylake in 1885 and was the consequence of the exploits of Hilton and Ball.
We, silly duffers, still call it The Amateur. I think they have a similar event in the US

Tim, as an American and avid enthusiast
of gold, the Open Championship is the
accurate form of address of this historic
championship. Accordingly, to European
periodicals that refer to the major golf
event contested annually in Augusta, GA, it
is The Masters tournament, not the "American
Masters" tournament. I've read that in
print on the continent.

Tim McDonald blogs about his travels to golf hotspots such as Florida, Myrtle Beach, Pinehurst, Hilton Head and the Gulf Coast (including his search for great barbecue joints along the way). He also follows Tiger Woods' path through PGA history.

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